Shrove Tuesday Means Pancake Day!

Lemon juice and sugar pancakes

I have very nostalgic memories from my childhood having hurried home from school on Shrove Tuesday for pancakes. Mum would be found in the kitchen with her large mixing bowl starting to make pancake batter. I would stand by her side and marvel in how to make this batter and also how to flip them over. Mum could flip her frying pan with ease and up in the air the pancake would fly to land back down on the other side for cooking. She would say, is this one going to stick on the ceiling or land back in the pan, we would look at each other and giggle! I always asked for lemon juice and sugar on my pancakes as a child. In those days, out would come the plastic jiffy lemon with its lemon juice inside, which I would squeeze over the top finishing off with a sprinkle of caster sugar, oh those were the days!

Caramel sauce and banana pancakes

Rosie’s Pancake Mixture

Serves 4

Ingredients
100g (4 oz) plain flour
2 eggs
200ml (7 fl oz) whole milk with 30ml (1 fl oz) cold water
25g (1 oz) melted butter
A little butter or oil for greasing a frying pan
Filling of choice for sweet pancakes
Fresh lemon juice with caster sugar for sprinkling
Fresh orange juice with caster sugar for sprinkling
Slices of lemon or orange for decoration
Caramel sauce and bananas dusted with a little icing sugar


Method

You will need a well-seasoned frying pan and get this hot before adding the mixture and just before adding the mixture turn it down to a medium heat or the pancake will stick to the pan. Add a little butter or oil on each addition of adding pancake mixture. You will also need a ladle or large jug for pouring the mixture into the pan.

Sieve the flour over a large mixing bowl then make a well in the middle with a spoon. Add the eggs and with a whisk start whisking through the mixture and adding the milk and water mixture a little at a time until you have a smooth batter consistency. (It’s much like a Yorkshire pudding batter but much thinner.) Lastly add the cooled melted butter and whisk through the mixture. Either pour into a large jug or use a ladle for pouring the mixture into the frying pan.

With the prepared frying pan greased with a little butter or oil add enough mixture to coat the middle and swirl the mixture around the pan to coat the whole base. This saves having a heavy thick pancake. Leave to cook until the bottom of the pancake is cooked about a minute, then flip it over with a fish slice and cook the other side in the same way.

Place the pancakes on plates or stack them up with non-sick paper between each layer until required.

For the filling, choose which one you desire and then fold each pancake over in half. Sprinkle a little more lemon, orange juice and caster sugar over the top or for the caramel banana pancakes, sprinkle a little extra caramel over and a sifting of icing sugar before serving.